Missing Piece
by Sugar Spice Rush
Summary: Voice recording tapes. Ripped book pages. Bloody jigsaw puzzle. All sent for her to her school, her workplace, and even her house. But the more she puts the pieces of this puzzle together, the more she realizes this may not be just about only her after all.
1. A Trick Gone Bad

**SSR: Happy Halloween! This is my second story!**

**Alice: (Red Riding Hood) No costumes due to extreme stress, school, and work. x_x**

**Shun: (NV attire) You can say that again.**

**SSR: What's up with you two? Anyway, the story has _nothing_ to with Halloween, but I thought it would be more suitable for a few scenes. Any of you watch CSI? New York, specifically?**

**Dan: Why do you ask?**

**SSR: I think it was Season 4's episode 9 that inspired me. You know, a certain person sent NYPD the 3D puzzle pieces? I'm not plagiarizing anything, I swear. there is no horror in this, except for the last scene, but it's already given.**

**Runo: So... Sugar Spice Rush doesn't own Bakugan or CSI New York. Move on?**

**Everyone: Yeah!**

* * *

**Chapter One**

**A Trick Gone Bad**

...

...

"This is the newest textbook we have. Careful with it."

"This is the newest textbook we have. Careful."

"I will. Thanks."

After one of the librarians in her college's library helped her find a textbook she needed, Alice took it to an empty table, sat down, and skimmed through the pages. "Definitely something I'll need for training. I'll check this out."

"Great. Come with me to the counter. Student ID, please."

Alice handed the man her college identification. He scanned her ID first and then he textbook barcode. "Is something wrong?"

"You have a lot of books checked out, that's all." He handed the book and Alice's ID back to her. "You're quite the hardworking student, always checking into the library every time during your study period."

"I have both my training and school homework to do, so I really need the peace and quiet." Alice checked her watch and gasped. "Speaking of training, I need to go to training. Can you check my name out?"

"Sure." The librarian clicked a few icons, and the words 'signed out' plus the time flashed across the screen. "All done. Wait, you're Alice Gehabich?"

"Thanks. Yeah, that's me. Why?"

"Someone left this here for you." From under the counter, he took out a small, bulky orange envelope. "I don't know what it is."

"Oh..." Alice sheepishly grabbed the envelope and placed it on top of the textbook. "Thanks, sir. See you next time."

"Bye! Happy Halloween!"

Once outside, Alice tore open the flap and took out a clear, plastic cassette. Not this again. She clenched the cassette tightly but put it back inside. Why is this happening to me?

Alice put the envelope away and walked from the campus of Wardington State University to Wardington Police Department for her concurrent college training, still wondering about the cassette tape and what would be on it.

But she already had a feeling of what it was.

Because it wasn't her first time receiving them.

...

...

"Somebody forgot their textbooks on the sink counter."

"Who's employee ID is this? Boss's going to kill you if you don't retrieve it."

"Is this anyone's mail package?"

"They're all mine!"

Alice walked out of her seat to get her textbooks, employee ID, and package. All those belongings somehow ended up from her personal lab to all over the second floor crime lab. Due to the Halloween season, the entire department worked hard to make sure the streets were safe for kids to trick-or-treat.

But not a single day in her life was safe for Alice.

"Alice! You want to have lunch with us?" Runo, Alice's first coworker friend in the second floor crime lab, came over with her closed food container. "I have a few friends that you might want to meet."

"Let me clean up my work first."

"Great! I'll wait for you by the fountain outside"

Alice placed her tools away, labeled and refrigerated her specimens, and cleaned up the lab table. At least I know some people care for me, but I still feel terrified.

Alice hadn't worked long in the understudy crime lab in the second floor. She was also a sophomore attending WSU but worked in the crime lab as an intern for the concurrent training to get her college credits faster. Most of the homework for her classes took place in the lab, and her training paid her monthly salary like a regular job, so the level of stress amounted to neutral

Recently, someone started sending weird deliveries to her during her free time study period in the library. That started late in her freshman year of college, and they were all blurry voice recordings on old cassettes with no return addresses. Somehow, they stopped during summer vacation, but Alice was out of the country at the time, so it didn't matter.

Starting sophomore year, the weird deliveries came back. What made things worse was that the deliveries were now sent to the WPD, specifically to her lab room. This time, the sender sent ripped book pages in tinier boxes.

Like the tiny pink gift box Alice just noticed sitting next to the boxes of micropipette tips.

_What is it now?_

She untied the ribbon and lifted the cover, revealing a folded piece of old, discolored yellow paper. It was another ripped book page, but Alice was too occupied with lunch to analyze it. She placed the contents back inside and put the gift box in her pocket with the cassette.

_Voice recordings and book pages...what's going on?_

...

...

"Aiyah!"

Alice went to the fountain like Runo said, but on the way, a pumpkin-head scarecrow puppet dangled from a nearby tree and scared her. Actually, it was just Runo holding it by string from behind the tree. "Wasn't that scary? You should've seen the look on your face!"

Runo's friends sat along the wide rim of the fountain and all waved at Alice, and Alice waved back. "So not funny. I lost something earlier and went to find it. What a nice idea to use a scarecrow to scare me. These guys ...?"

"Very 'punny', right? Let me introduce them to you. Alice, this is Marucho Marukura and Shun Kazami. People, this is Alice."

"Nice to meet you two. I hope you don't have tricks up your sleeves." They laughed as she shook hands with them, but stopped when she reached Shun. "Don't you have biochemistry and forensics with me at WSU?"

"You have those classes, too? No wonder you look so familiar."

"Um..." Runo tried to get an understanding of what's going on here. "You two know each other?"

"Not really." Shun replied. "I just transferred to those classes from another college. Let's eat."

After eating lunch and a lovely conversation, Marucho had to go back to Marukura Technologies Incorporated, and Runo went back to work. That left Alice and Shun behind at the fountain. "So what you doing here? Applying for training?"

"My interview was at eleven o'clock." Looking at Alice's ID clipped onto her jacket, he asked, "You're training too?"

"Yeah. I've been here for two months now. Usually, the University has students apply for training in pairs, but I was apply early by myself, so it's just me in my laboratory."

"Really? Then I shouldn't have applied in the first place."

Alice eyed Shun awkwardly, not understanding the statement. "Say what?"

"**You **just told me about the training pair system, and **I **just remembered that I was the only person who filled out a form for this month, which means I'll probably be by myself."

"Oh." Alice knew exactly how Shun felt. "Can't they make any exceptions since you're a fresh transfer student?"

"I wouldn't know about that."

"Well, I certainly haven't heard of any other people applying in between the time we each applied, so maybe we can collaborate. After all, you're Runo's friend, so that also makes you my friend, and we have two mutual classes. Think about it."

Shun took a deep breath and smiled. "Thanks, Alice. I never thought I'd get to talk about this to anyone. You sure you don't mind sharing a lab with me? The professors told me about the system right before I left for my interview."

"It's not **that** scary. That's their idea of a Halloween trick. Today's the 31st, after all. As for the lab..." Alice took out the gift box and sighed. "Why don't we talk that another time?"

"Why? What's wrong? If you really don't want to share, then just-"

"It's not a matter of sharing. It's just...look at this." She thrusted the gift box in front of Shun. "Question: would you get creeped out if someone sent you weird, creepy things to your workplace and school?"

"Uh...sounds like you have a stalker. The gift box looks harmless. Is that the problem?"

Alice sighed again. "More or less. Since we just met, I don't want to tell you too much. It's my problem, not yours, so I'll handle it. I **really** look forward to training with you. You're a really nice person."

"Well, Runo wouldn't be friends with me if I wasn't nice, wouldn't she? Just saying." He checked his watch. "Twelve-fifty-one. I have nothing to do until biochem at three."

"And I have to go back to work until two for the rest of my classes. You can stay with me and observe how I work in the meantime."

"Can I?"

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind. When will you know you can start training here?"

"Maybe in a few days. I'll walk with you."

Although Alice felt a lot better making a couple more friends, the nonsense deliveries still frightened her. She hadn't told anyone about them, not even Runo or grandfather, but she told Shun a few details already. _Does it really matter if I tell him? I haven't even shown him the cassette envelopes._ There wasn't much Alice could do, but she didn't want to throw any of these deliveries away.

_Might as well put all my effort into helping Shun with his training lessons._

...

...

"You don't live in the school dorms?"

After Alice's training, other classes, and study period, Shun offered to walk Alice home. Even though they only officially met today at lunch, it felt like they knew each other since freshman year.

"No, I have a house not to far from the school campus, and it's cheaper than the rent for the dorms. Where do you live?"

"In the other direction. Look at these kids." It was Halloween night after all, so parents accompanies their children, dressed in all kinds of costumes, to go trick-or-treating. "When was the last time you dressed up in a costume?"

"Last year's Halloween. There was a 'freshmen only' Halloween party in the food hall, and I dressed up as Hermione Granger. Is that kid the Grim Reaper? That's a lot of blood."

"It's just the plastic mask. Squeeze the heart mechanism, and red liquid flows into the mask. Did you buy any candy in case kids went your house?"

"I have chocolate, lollipops, gummies, and more. You want some?"

Shun chuckled in response to Alice's offer. "As a matter of fact, I do. Just give me enough so that it doesn't look like I'm robbing the kids of what they deserve."

"Oh wait. I have a bag of gummy worms here." She took out the candy to give to Shun. "I'll be fine from here. Thanks for walking me home."

"You're welcome. I'll tell you first thing if I get accepted into the department for training. See you tomorrow. Stay safe."

"You too!" Alice took out her keys ready upon seeing her house, along with a short postman and an adult knocking on the door but then left. "Wait! I'll have candy!" But the duo looked at her and walked away. "There goes my first customers."

She walked up the stairs of the front porch to turn the light on but hit something. "What's this?" On the doormat was a large, cubic package tied with white twine. There no label or sticker at all. "That's odd."

Alice unlocked the door and took the package inside to examine. She cut the twine with a letter opener, lifted the cover, and took out a large, stuffed translucent plastic bag. Out poured maybe hundreds of puzzle pieces, all of different colors. It wasn't the variety or quantity that caught her attention.

It was the brown-red stains, spots, and smears on the pieces and inside the bag.

And Alice was more than terrified at the **smell** of it.

"What is this?!"

Obviously, it was more than just a Halloween trick gone bad...

* * *

**SSR: Neither Wardington State University or Wardington Police Department actually exist.**

**Dan: We knew that.**

**SSR: Oh really? Did you know that-**

**Runo: Dan, just shut up.**

**Shun: I'm leaving.**

**SSR: And that's exactly why I decided Halloween is the best day for type to event to be really scary. I think I said I tried to scare people away in my other story somewhere but kept failing, so I'm trying it here.**

**Dan: And if you fail a third time, you know it's not a coincidence and-**

**Alice: Just get out.**

**SSR: Thank you. Please leave a review! Check out my first story if you haven't yet!**

**Runo and Alice: Happy Halloween!**


	2. Know Me Well

**SSR: Happy 2014 everyone! I think about a sixth of the world is still 2013, but it's 2014 in S. Korea. I was going to update yesterday, but I was busy preparing for a countdown party.**

**Runo: Let's just hope the server won't crash on New Year's Day in FanFiction website time.**

**Dan: Remember last Wednesday on Christmas?**

**Joe: Even webmasters need a day off you know.**

**SSR: Which is why I'm updating now. Might as well update this first; OWTTM can wait. [MagicxMusicxMelody], you should watch CSI if you love crime, forensics, and catching bad guys! They're going to work in order of deliveries, so the puzzle is close to last. [****InnocentDiamond], you do? I'm going to refer to two other episodes of other shows later. It's like an internship. [****RosesOfTruth], okay good, you love these kinds of stories. Horror genre would be too scary. Think of all the other creepy deliveries Alice received earlier. [****Cup of Violet Tea], Halloween wasn't the main point, but dressing up as a mailman is! Serenity ruined indeed. [****Cherry-Tree], aw man. NY and Vegas are better, in my opinion. I guess Alice's major could be criminology or criminal justice. ****I think it's better that she stay at home.**

**Shun: People are still lighting fireworks outside in the afternoon. In the cold. With falling snow.**

**SSR: Stop watching the news. And it does not snow at all in the district I live in. I don't Bakugan!**

**Runo: Neither do you own CSI New York.**

**Shun: Better change that disclaimer later.**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**Know Me Well**

...

...

The stench of dried blood filled her living room, and Alice continued retching until she opened a window to let fresh air in. Standing at the window with hands on the windowsill, she took multiple deep breaths until the heart-attack rush finally left her body.

"This is disgusting..." she muttered, hands on her head to relieve the headache. Alice went inside her room and took out all the voice recordings and torn pages that were sent to her. _Remixed voices and subliminal messages were scary enough. Now a giant bag of puzzle pieces soaked in old blood?_

After this, Alice was in no mood to eat dinner.

...

...

"Alice? You're not allowed to sleep in the library."

Alice lifted her head up, rubbed her eyes, and saw someone staring directly at her across the long library tables. "Aiyah!"

"Not again. But it's so adorable when you do that."

After that jumpscare, Alice hugged the back of chair nervously and slowly turned over. "Shun! You scared me! I don't see what's 'adorable' about scaring me, but—wait, did you say it was 'adorable'?"

"Am I not allowed to say that?" Alice shook her head. "I'm sorry if I woke you up, but you've been sleeping for twenty-something minutes, and the librarian at the counter was worried. He said you were a hardworking student and doesn't usually take rests here."

"So I'm really **not** allowed to sleep here?"

Now Shun shook his head. "That was just to catch your attention. Have you been sleeping at all? I noticed you've been a little off for the past couple days."

_He's been noticing me for a couple days now?_ "I'll explain some other time. By the way, what are you doing here? Do you have your free period now too?"

"Yup. I don't usually come here, though, but I remember you saying you always come here, so I decided to stop by. Hope I'm not interrupting your studies."

"Oh, no. You just said I slept for twenty minutes. That was not productive." Alice checked her watch and packed up her supplies. "Time to go to training. Do you know if you've been approved for concurrent training yet?"

He shook his head again. "I must've failed some part of it. You sure you're feeling okay? There's definitely something on your mind. I can tell."

"Well..." She took a deep breath and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Care to walk to me to the police station?"

"Sure. Then we can talk about what's on your mind."

Alice walked over to the counter and called the librarian. "Hello sir! Can you check my name out?"

"Sure. Just a minute." The librarian was kneeling down and organizing the counter below. "Oh, hello Miss Alice. You finally woke up."

"Yeah, and I just realized I need to go." she answered uneasily.

"No worries. Give me a moment, and...oh! You have another orange envelope. I'm curious, how often do you receive these? This is my first year working here."

"Far too often, I'm afraid. Thanks, and have a nice day!" Alice accepted the bulking envelope and opened it. "Why can't this person just stop?"

"Who are you talking about?" asked Shun, peering over at the tape. "Cassettes? That's so old-school. Who still does that?"

"The better question is who's sending me this stuff. I don't want to get you involved, but this connects to the pink gift box I showed you on Halloween. Not to mention, this bloody bag of puzzle-"

"Excuse me. 'Bloody'? As in one among many body fluids?"

"You and your scientific vocabulary. As far as I know, it's **smells **like it." Shun chuckled softly, but Alice elbowed him hard. "Don't laugh. This is serious. You're the one who said I might have a stalker following me."

"Ahem. I apologize for that. Is it really that bad? **Seeing **the blood is bad enough, but **smelling** it just makes it worse. The less senses involved, the better. Can I see that cassette, though?"

"Go ahead. I haven't heard any of them after I stuffed them away a while ago."

Shun held the cassette up to his eyes and turned it all around. Then he stopped turning it and focused on a gilded label. "Manufactured by Clearessence Vocal Products. I can't tell if the year says 1993 or 1998."

"Twentieth century? That **is** old."

"I told you your stalker is old-school. Not to mention, CVP officially changed their name to Smooth Re-Sound Incorporated in 2000."

"Wow." Alice took the cassette back and placed it in the envelope. "I didn't know you knew so much about cassettes. I should've ask you to help me with this earlier. Maybe you can also help me with the ripped book pages and bloody puzzle."

"I thought you said this was your problem, not mine..."

"Well-I-You know what-" stuttered Alice.

"It's okay, I'm kidding. Of course I'll help you with whatever you need. I do have to say that I couldn't help you before because we didn't officially 'meet' each other yet."

"Right. Thanks. How **do** you know so much about cassettes? Some of my friends even forget what a compact disk is."

"Cassettes? My mother was obsessed with traditional music, of the 1900s, which back then were released as cassettes, not CD singles or albums. Have you listened to what's on these cassettes?"

"Blurry, remixed voices. Oh, I'm at the police station. Thanks for walking me here."

Shun waved her goodbye. "You're welcome. Call me when you're done with training for today. I really want to check out those other tapes."

"I will. Call me when you get accepted into training." So far, Alice had a good start with a few details on the cassettes, but she was still nowhere near finding out the culprit and his/her motives.

...

...

Somebody knocked on Alice's front door.

"Coming!"

She looked out the peephole of the door and saw Shun carrying a gray, rectangular box object on his right shoulder. Alice twisted the switch and opened the door. "Shun! I wasn't expecting you come over today. Come in."

Shun took his shoes off onto the rack and put on a pair of slippers. "Sorry for coming over so suddenly, but I have three times the good news for you."

"Three times? That's crazy! Although I do want to hear something interesting since I'm tired of working on this lab report." Alice pulled a chair at the dinner table for Shun and poured him a glass of juice. "Care to elaborate?"

"I will. First good news: I passed the interview and exams."

"Really?" Suddenly, Alice checked her phone's call log. "I thought I told you to call me."

"Well, I was busy retrieving this cassette player, which I'll talk about later." He put the cassette player down and continued. "Second good news: we're in the same microscope and chemicals lab, if that's what it's called. Minor bad news is that we're not doing EDNA together."

"That too? I **told** you that the professors would put you with me. I'm not doing environmental DNA at all, so that doesn't count. And the last one?"

"Last good news: this cassette player." Alice cleared the table for Shun to place the gray device on. Judging by the dust and weird buttons, it looked more like a very ancient boombox. "Don't underestimate this thing. It may be out-of-style now, but it was the #1 music player in my mother's day."

"In your **mother's** day. Not our generation's." Nevertheless, Alice was curious about what this cassette player did. "Why'd you bring it here?"

"Before I came by, I called my mother to check up on her, and then asked her about old cassette tapes-"

"You told your mother about weird deliveries?!" _I know he's trying to help me, but this is just odd._

Shun shook his head. "Not exactly," he reassured. "I only asked her for help on old cassettes tapes in general. I didn't mention anything about you. She told me to come buy and pick up her cassette player. Do you have your cassettes with you?"

She nodded. "I know you want to help me, but I played most of the cassettes myself with a Sony Walkman, and I can't make anything out of it. How's this going to help me?"

"Get me a cassette first. I want the very first one you received."

Alice went up stairs and dug through her drawers and found the one dated in the beginning of the year. "Here. I received late in my freshman year of college. Do what you need to do."

Shun carefully took the cassette out of the envelope, popped the tray on the cassette player open, and placed the cassette in. As he pressed a few buttons, he explained to Alice, "Since your cassette tapes are rather old, my mother suggested using an old cassette player to play the tapes to see if it works."

"Oh...kind of like Compatibility Mode on Microsoft Word 2010."

"You could say that, although present-day cassette players have gained new functions but lost old ones."

"So you're using an old cassette player to see if old functions can process old tapes better?"

"Exactly. I took a class on something like this during summer vacation after my junior year of high school." Shun popped the tray back in and pressed the play button. "And if this **still** fails, I can try using the random buffer-fixer chemicals my mother also gave-"

"Oh, Shun, don't! You've done enough by bringing this cassette player over.I don't want you destroying evidence." The two of them burst into laughter, but then Alice stopped. "Do you hear that?"

"I'll turn the volume up." Shun turned the dial to a comfortable volume. "You know, I think you should record this."

"Okay, hold on." While Alice was looking through her phone, the cassette played a very odd question.

**_Do you remember that hospital up on the hill that was a hospital-clinic-pharmacy three-in-one?_**

After a long silence, the cassette stopped playing. "That mean anything to you?"

"Not really. It sounds familiar, yet very general."

"Then let's hear the B-side." Shun opened the tray and flipped the cassette. The B-side played what sounded like the answer to the question on the A-side.

_**Of course I remember that hospital with the figure-eight asphalt road but without a fourth floor.**_

"What about now?"

Alice was more than shocked and pale, maybe even paler than when she saw the bloody puzzle pieces. "That's the description of the hospital I was born in."

"Oh." Shun took out the cassette and gave it back to Alice. "Maybe it's time to go over all the 'evidence' that was sent to you, from the very first item to the last."

Alice nodded restlessly. "Whoever sent all this must know me well...but who?"

* * *

**SSR: It's true - use older products with older products functions better. That's why directions say to never mix old and new batteries.**

**Shun: A walkman?!**

**SSR: I didn't know what that was until my about-to-retire English teacher mentioned it in class.**

**Runo: Question - why would a hospital waste a floor like that?**

**SSR: It's a cultural/lingual thing. "Four" in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc. is homophones with "die/death", and being a hospital, you don't want death. Neither do some buildings have an occupied 13th floor.**

**Dan: A-sides/B-sides?**

**SSR: Something still typical of cassettes and music CDs. Don't forget to review! Wish you all an awesome 2013 ending and 2014 beginning!**


End file.
